SOLVED: Tree with Large Heart Shaped Leaves

Hi, this is another tree I would love some help with. This tree has large heartshaped leaves (shown on A4 piece of paper). It is decidious. I don't remember seeing flowers. I have looked up Catalpa tree, but I don't think it is this, due to its open structure and lack of seed pods/flowers and I don't feel there is a match with the leaf patterning. As you can see, it is in a woodland setting which will have affected the shape of the tree, as it reaches for light. I also thought of lime tree, but the patterning on the leaf does not match.

Hi Diana, Yes... The leaves certainly look like Pawlonia, but they are not opposite, rather a bit more random. The description I read is that Pawlonia leaves have a woolly underneath but perhaps that is just Pawlonia tormentosa and there are a few different species of it... It has not flowered in the five years I have been living here.

Hi Viburnum Valley. Thanks for your reply ! Here is another picture showing the leaf arrangement in another part of the tree. Sometimes the leaves are opposite in pairs, sometimes they are opposite not paired, and sometimes they are facing off in the same direction twice. Yes, I agree that the leaves look a lot like a Catalpa and Pawlonia. But I can't account for the lack of flowers... Perhaps you know whether some of these plants just don't flower ? I do know that Pawlonia grows in Rotorua (not common) and don't know about Catalpa. However this garden was previously owned by a "plant collector" so I am expecting this to be something not commonly seen around these parts....

Thanks growin. Yeah, it could be. The leaves look the same as Idesia.The leaves aren't really white on the back though they are a lighter colour. I will have to pay close attention during summer in case it gets the small flowers that are referred to on websites, but you know, I don't feel that I have ever seen them... (It is almost mid-Summer now and no sign of flowers...) Websites say I need a male and female to get red berries. It is amazing how many different plants have very similar looking leaves !

Another photo. So I don't think it is Idesia because the growth isn't red. But perhaps that redness only applies to what first happens in Spring I don't quite understand all the technical terms below but it does refer to dark red shoots. On the tree I have, some of the leave stalks are kinda red/green - like rhubarb.

You might want to open up the canopy a bit so that it will flower with more light. If it is Idesia, I've only seen them in the complete open with max sun. I guess it must need full sun for flower/fruit. The only other one's I kinda looked up were Davidia but the veination looks different and serration and then maybe some Clerodendron. I also noticed you're in USDA 10a which open up many more tender species.

Hi growin, thanks for that. The Davidia tree is lovely isn't it. Trees are jammed in everywhere in our woodland garden, which is why some plants have grown different from the norm (such as this one, which is not upright / flowering / much red). I think I'll call this post closed for now and record this tree as an Idesia.